This glittering concrete monolith is a lot like that still-sealed emergency survival kit languishing in your basement since 1999: Reassuring to have around, but a bummer when you actually have to use it. The Svalbard Global Seed Vault—better known by its cute nickname, the "Doomsday Vault"—was established on this far-northern Norwegian isle in 2008 to archive frozen genetic copies of seeds already housed in seed banks around the world: a backup of all the backups. Kept at minus 0.4 degrees F within the seed vault, precious botanicals from food to fibers to flowers are safe from disasters, even of the apocalyptic variety. Lucky us: It"ll take a healthy diet of veggies to fight off the zombies.
Even nature needs a backup plan…
Today in History
More Desktop Wallpapers:
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Chapel of St. Michel on Lake Serre-Ponçon, Hautes-Alpes, France
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Martinique
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Vermilion Cliffs National Monument
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Terraced rice fields, Yuanyang County, China
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Beavers Bend
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Did they forget to fly south?
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Eurasian lynx
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Hyalite Creek at Custer Gallatin National Forest, Montana
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Take me to the river
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A bison preserve
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Sea Otter Awareness Week
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Longer days mean warmer sand
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Adorably evolutionary sea sheep
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National Take a Hike Day
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Are you older than this lake?
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Winter scenery near Kuhmo, Finland
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The story of a rediscovered redwood
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A view fit for a queen
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Ancient theater of Epidaurus, Greece
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Burchells zebras for International Zebra Day
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Reflecting on fall
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A peek at an explosive peak
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It s National Hispanic Heritage Month
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A city of bridges
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Celebrating freedom
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Fat Bear Week
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Joan charges Riverside Park
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It s Coffee Day
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Marine Day in Japan
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In the Supertree Grove